The Best of Great Voices: 20th Century Masters/Christmas Collection (2005)

About this title: It's Christmas with a bunch of opera singers. This discount-priced compilation leads off with Luciano Pavarotti intoning the English lyrics of "O Holy Night" in his heavy Italian accent, which gives a good indication to the potential customer about what the rest of the disc is like. After a verse, Pavarotti wisely switches over to Italian, eliminating the self-parody of the first two minutes of the track and the album. But the point is made. The cumbersomely titled The Best of Great Voices of Christmas: 20th Century Masters/The Christmas Collection is a solemn, self-serious treatment of ... read more

Tracks:

1. O Holy Night [Adam]
2. O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion [Handel]
3. What Child Is This? [Traditional]
4. The Holly and the Ivy [Traditional]
5. Good King Wenceslas [Traditional]
6. Ave Verum Corpus, K. 618 [Mozart]
7. Flösst, Mein Heiland, Flösst Dein Namen [Bach]
8. Hallelujah [Handel]
9. The Twelve Days of Christmas [Traditional]
10. Ich Schenk Dir Eine Neue Welt [Loges]
11. El Nacimienta [Ramirez]
12. Ave Maria [Gounod]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.